"The hexagon is just a current of air, and weather features out there that share similarities to this are notoriously turbulent and unstable," said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of the Cassini imaging team in Pasadena, Calif. "A hurricane on Earth typically lasts a week, but this has been here for decades — and who knows — maybe centuries."

NASA says some parts of the storm, known as vortices, cover 2,200 miles, making them twice as big as any known hurricane in Earth’s history. While no one knows for sure, NASA says it believes the giant storm has managed to stay active for so long because Saturn does not have any substantial landmass that could cause the weather pattern to die out.

Cassini first arrived near Saturn in 2004, and its mission is scheduled to end in 2017. However, NASA says the timing is perfect as the planet’s summer solstice occurs during that timeframe and should give Cassini its best views of the storm.

"As we approach Saturn's summer solstice in 2017, lighting conditions over its north pole will improve, and we are excited to track the changes that occur both inside and outside the hexagon boundary," Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.